Customer Reviews

The Peanuts Illustrated Songbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is great in three ways: First, the music itself is first rate. The arrangements in the book are the real thing and are quite a bit more difficult than the "easy" piano versions. Second, there are great-looking comics on most every page, which makes it a joy just to look at. Lastly, there is a lengthy history of Peanuts and how Vince became involved with it.
The only aspect keeping this book from a 5 rating is the binding. The book wouldn't lay flat on the piano, which made it practically impossible to play. I brought it to Kinko's and got it spiral bound for about $4, and now it works great. Poor thinking on the publisher's part, though.

I've just received this today and it really is beautiful to look at. But I do wonder why they had to print every single page of this book on glossy paper?

It seems like it would be much less durable than regular paper over time, and more prone to smudging and fading. This special paper requires extra careful handling, so don't even think about going near this with unclean or greasy fingers unless you delight in seeing great black finger streaks across your music.

Also, since the pages are so glossy and thick, it is impossible to open this book at the piano without it snapping shut in your face. I usually prefer music books bound this way, because spiral-binding destroys paper edges faster, but I really cannot open this book to a particular song for more than 2 seconds, even when I try to hold doewn the sides with heavier books.

It's a great value anyway, and I'm probably just being overly anal about the glossy pages. This is the only place you'll find some songs, such as "Thanksgiving Theme" and "Frieda with the naturally curly hair," so you might as well add it to your music collection.

Where to start? First, Vince Guaraldi was a great talent and our real loss is the wonderful music he would still be producing today.

Second, his Peanuts work is one of the main gateways to jazz for today's young minds. I don't know where the music would be today without the fans he introduced to it.

Third, Fantasy Records, who release his CDs, does an abysmal job in preserving the Charlie Brown musical legacy. Each and every CD they release is a slap-dash affair and dishonors the creators. "Oh, Good Grief" was less than 30 minutes long! His son should kick some butt. Just had to get this off my chest.

Finally, this music book is a delight! It's comprehensive and lovingly presented with colorful illustsrations. Most selections include transcriptions of Vince's jazz solos, grace notes and all. And the harmonies seem to be complete and error-free. (I really like Vince's use of the 13th chord with the flatted 9th.)

I did the same as the previous reviewer and had the book spiral bound at Kinko's. One star deducted from an otherwise excellent product.

Moderately easy to intermediate difficulty; reasonably accurate interpretations. Since it's not easy to find anything but simple sheet music type arrangements of these pieces, this folio is well worth the money. The introductory essay is excellent.

This full color book borders on a coffee table work with a soft cover: It fuses Peanuts history/trivia with classic illustrations and, of course, sheet music. The illustrations are beautiful, the coated paper is of high quality, and the arrangements are closer to the originals than anything else I have found on the market. Any Peanuts fan would love this book, musician or not. As for the reviewer complaining about the binding, this is your standard perfect book binding that also appears on other music books I own. I can foresee that it is unlikely any serious Peanuts fan will want to mark this fine book up, in which case photocopying the desired portions is one way of keeping it in pristine condition ---- and a solution to the fact that it isn't easy to keep the book open short of "breaking it in" or using an M-shape page holder/book clip.

Excellent note-for-note transcriptions of a wide range of tunes. Fun to play and fun for kids to hear. Others complain about the glossy pages, but if you bend (break) the spine, the book stands up no problem.

I don't play but I bought this as a birthday gift for my fiancé, she loves it and is learning to play quite a few of the songs the music is just a complex as the original composer intended and it's real jazz so it's taking her a little while to get the hang of it but, she loves learning new things. A great gift.

What can I say. This book is amazing. The transcriptions are fantastic and there are awesome images throughout the book. The only minor thing I would change is its binding. It's a bit tight. Being a piano book, I would have preferred a spiral bind or something easier to keep open.